Anyone aware of the JerryRigEverything YouTube channel knows all about the durability test that its creator, Zack Nelson, subjects new flagship phones to.
The test always involves plenty of scratching and scraping, and a naked flame makes an appearance, too. But the part that most people look forward to is when Nelson bends the device with his own bare hands. No, it’s not a scientific test, but it is entertaining. Plus, it’s interesting to see just how much structural integrity each phone has.
It doesn’t happen very often, but phones have been known to break or even snap clean in two when experiencing Nelson’s bend test.
Impressively, Samsung’s new super-thin phone, the Galaxy S25 Edge, stayed intact when Nelson performed the bend test in June.
After that, attention turned to Apple’s even thinner iPhone Air. Surely, at just 5.6mm thin, the iPhone Air would buckle in Nelson’s hands and become a very early foldable iPhone.
Well, after Apple released a video earlier in the week showing a machine bending the iPhone Air but not breaking it, many started to realize that the phone’s designers had gone all in on making this a solid bit of kit. Yes, the phone’s titanium frame will have helped a lot.
So, what about Nelson’s test? Well, he applied all the pressure he could with his hands, and while the phone flexed a little, it didn’t so much as make a squeak. There was no doubt — the iPhone Air comfortably passed Nelson’s infamous bend test.
But the popular YouTuber wasn’t done yet. He had to know just how much pressure Apple’s thinnest-ever handset could take before it broke, so he set up a crane scale to find out.
At the 120-pounds mark (55 kg), a faint (cracking?) sound could be heard from the iPhone Air, but it still looked good and the screen remained on. Another sound followed at 194 pounds (88 kg) but the phone continued to bend rather than break.
But then, with 216 pounds (98 kg) of pressure pushing against it, the iPhone Air’s display finally shattered, prompting Nelson to halt the test. On closer inspection, we could see that the titanium frame had bent out of shape, but the screen remained on — and still worked!
“I can personally vouch that the iPhone Air is structurally indestructible, except for drops and scratches, which, just like any other smartphone, will still cause damage,” Nelson said.
